Generally, within the field of manufacture and assembly of circuit boards, electronic components are fed to a component mounting machine for mechanically and/or electrically mounting the components onto a circuit board. These surface mounted components are often delivered spaced apart along the length of a component tape. Generally, two different types of component tapes are used. The first type consists of a lower carrier tape, preferably plastic, provided with component holding compartments, which are enclosed by a separable, thin, plastic upper cover, or cover tape or protective tape. The second type consists of a cardboard body provided with through holes. The body is provided with separable, thin, plastic, top and bottom cover tapes, thus forming component compartments with the through holes. For ease of description, the term cover tape will hereinafter refer only to the top cover.
After having positioned the electronic components in their corresponding compartments, the cover tape is attached to the carrier tape, and the component tape is wound on a component tape holder, which within the art generally consists of a component tape reel. The attachment of the cover tape to the carrier tape can, for instance, be performed by providing either or both of the cover tape and the carrier tape with adhesive areas, or by fusing the cover tape to the carrier tape. Then, the component holder is transferred to a component mounting machine, which feeds a component to a certain predetermined picking position where it can be picked, or collected, by a pick-up head.
According to a method conventionally used within the art, the loading of a component tape in a component mounting machine involves the following steps. Placing the component tape reel into the reel holder of a component mounting machine, or into a tape magazine of a component mounting machine; introducing the free end of the component tape into a feeding mechanism, provided in the machine or in the magazine, such that feeding pins engage corresponding holes provided in the component tape; separating, by hand, the end of the cover tape from the end of the carrier tape for a distance sufficient for the cover tape to be engaged with a cover tape handling device, generally a bobbin onto which the cover tape can be wound; and lowering a locking mechanism over the carrier tape for holding the carrier tape against the feeding mechanism.
Another method that also has been suggested involves, briefly, the steps of loading a component tape of a component tape reel into a tape guide, placing the component tape reel into the reel holder of a component mounting machine or into a magazine, and mounting the tape guide into the machine and/or the magazine.
In both these methods, the magazine or the portion of the component mounting machine into which a component tape to be used in a mounting process is loaded must be idle during the loading process. If a large number of component tapes are to be loaded, the idle time may be significant.